1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates, in general, to a method and an apparatus for providing a directory containing information regarding possible communication partners for a user, and for obtaining at least one possible communication partner from the directory and suggesting the possible communication partner to the user.
To determine technical addresses, such as telephone and fax numbers, it is known practice to use suitable directories. In particular, public, company-internal and user-specific directories are known.
The known CD-ROMs containing telephone directory data represent publicly accessible directories. However, such directories do not contain e-mail addresses, for example, and also do not contain extension numbers that are important for business calls.
Centrally managed company-internal directories are comparatively complete within the company field, as far as different communication media and extension numbers are concerned. This does not apply to addresses that are external to the company. These external addresses are typically not provided or are only provided on a rudimentary basis.
User-specific directories are created by the user himself. They can therefore be well matched to the requirements of the user. However, creating and continuously updating a user-specific directory is very time consuming, therefore, many users do not use the available possibilities at all or do not use them fully.
2. Summary of the Invention
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a method and a device that enables the prevention of the aforementioned problems and that enables the flexible and efficient determination of the technical address of a communication partner and that, in particular, enables the administrative effort of the user to be as low as possible.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a method of determining a communication partner's technical address for a user. A directory is provided that includes at least one technical address and at least one identifier for each one of a plurality of possible communication partners for a user. Based on an input from the user, at least one communication partner is obtained from the directory and is suggested to the user. At least one of the steps of providing the directory or suggesting the communication partner is performed automatically based on the user's previous communication behavior.
The invention thus provides a convenient means of finding the desired technical address. In terms of effect, the invention is equivalent to a personal directory which is automatically created and automatically updated. The invention thus affords the advantages of a personal, user-specific directory with little effort for the user in terms of managing and maintaining the directory. At the same time, as it were, the user supplies the necessary information about his communication behavior by actually using the telecommunications apparatus.
According to the invention, the directory contains a multiplicity of entries each containing at least one technical address and at least one identifier or identifying particular about a communication partner. In the context of the invention, a technical address should be regarded as being, in particular, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail addresses, internet addresses and all other information used to call the communication partner. However, in the context used here, a technical address can also be a conventional postal address or another item of information about a communication partner that is suggested by a technical device. The communication partner can be a person or a machine, in the latter case a WWW server, for example.
The identifier or identifying particular is regarded as being any item of information which is directed at the user and denotes the communication partner for the user. Such a particular can be, for example, a name, a name component, a short description of the content of a WWW server and so on. For each communication partner, the directory preferably contains as many identifying particulars and as much other information as possible.
As already mentioned, the invention is intended to be equivalent, in terms of effect, to a personal directory which is built up automatically. To achieve this effect, preferred embodiments provide just such a personal directory. In alternative embodiments, on the other hand, only suitably coded information about the user's previous communication behavior is stored and is then used as the basis for suggesting an entry from a non-personal directory, for example, a central, company-internal, or public directory.
In the two cases mentioned, personal information about the user's previous communication behavior is stored, specifically either in a personal directory or directly. Furthermore, in the two cases mentioned, a predetermined (particularly a public or company-internal) directory is preferably used, specifically either such that the suggestion is taken directly from the predetermined directory or such that the personal directory is compared with the predetermined directory on creation and is added to from the latter.
In preferred embodiments in which a personal directory is created, this is preferably done by recording the technical addresses of previous communication partners over a predetermined time period or continuously. For each new technical address, an entry is created in the personal directory. The effort for the user is particularly small if the entry is completely automatically created as a result of obtaining further identifying items or particulars for this entry from available directories (for example company-internal or public directories) without the co-operation of the user. If this is not or is not entirely possible, the information still required is requested from the user in preferred embodiments. This procedure can be used for automatically creating, over time, a personal directory that is well matched to the communication habits of the user.
To simplify the search for entries in the personal directory or in another directory, the invention preferably provides that the user has to input only an arbitrary part of the information stored in the entry being sought, for example only the beginning of the name of the desired communication partner or the beginning of the technical address being sought. The latter possibility is handy if the user remembers part of the technical address, which may be the case with frequently used telephone numbers or with e-mail addresses.
If the user's input is not sufficient to unambiguously identify the desired target subscriber, one of the possible target subscribers is suggested on the basis of the user's previous communication behavior. By way of example, the communication partner called most frequently to date can be suggested, or the target subscriber amongst those possible who was addressed last. In preferred embodiments, the user can then either accept the suggestion or request another suggestion.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is also provided, in accordance with the invention, a telecommunications apparatus for determining a technical address of a communication partner for a user. The apparatus includes a device for providing a directory that includes at least one technical address and at least one identifier for each one of a plurality of possible communication partners, and a device for suggesting at least one communication partner from the directory based on an input by a user.
The telecommunications apparatus preferably enables establishing a communication connection to the communication partner suggested or to the communication partner selected by the user on the basis of the suggestions.
The other subclaims relate to other preferred embodiments.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a method of determining the technical address of a communication partner and telecommunications apparatus, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.